The Chrysalis School, an independent private school, will be allowed to reopen next school year in a new location after the city council unanimously passed an ordinance allowing secondary schools for seventh to 12th grades in the Woodinville’s industrial zone.

Chrysalis teachers, many of whom attended Chrysalis themselves or whose children attend the school now, spoke at the meeting about the school’s importance to the community.

"I really hope you pass this, but I would teach out of the back of one of those moving trucks if I have to, and I don’t think there’s a teacher in this building who wouldn’t do that,"

MaryKate Meyer, a teacher at Chrysalis for eight years, said. "We are a devoted, loving, caring community. We’re not just a school."

Karin Fogle, the the director and founder of the school, explained that the lease on the school’s current building is up in six weeks, so Chrysalis has an urgent need to find a new building before classes start in September.

The city council also continued its public hearing and discussion of permitted uses for Woodinville’s Central Business District (CBD) and General Business (GB) zone. A moratorium on certain uses will expire in July 2013, so the council must decide before then whether and how to allow several types of businesses — marinas, software development, gas stations, and conference centers.The city currently distinguishes between software development and software publishing companies, according to Erin Martindale, senior planner for the development services department. Software development companies, which are primarily concerned with creating computer programs, are allowed; software publishing companies, which manufacture and distribute CDs with software, are not. The proposal would allow web publishing, but not manufacturing CDs, in the CBD and GB.For gas stations, the planning commission lessened the requirements for the screen blocking the pump area from the road, but didn’t change the requirement to use wood in the canopy or the ban on using corporate colors and translucent materials.

Daniel Gowen, who represents Jackson’s Food Stores and the Shell Station, pointed out that changes to the typical design of a gas station would make customers doubt the brand and the quality of the gas.

"Basically, [the city council] want[s] to take everything that is the identity of a gas station away. It’s what differentiates them," Gowen said. "It’s hard to fit in and stand out — we have a lot of competitors out there, and we need to differentiate ourselves from them. And if people, like I said last time, sense that there’s something that’s not brand consistent, they’re going to think there’s something wrong with that station ...You should be able to identify yourself, to fly your colors, and do it in a tasteful way."

The city also clarified that businesses that don’t meet the new criteria will be grandfathered in to the new code. Those nonconforming uses will remain with the property, so if a landowner rents to a business that no longer conforms with the code, another business of the same type could rent the same property.

The public hearing about permitted uses in the CBD and GB will continue at the next city council meeting on May 21 at 7 p.m.